Reference no: EM133306754

Assignment: Milgram's research on obedience to authority is the best known, most dramatic, and most controversial in the study of obedience and conformity. Inspired by the events of World War II Nazi Germany, Milgram constructed a laboratory setting that called upon ordinary people, in response to commands issued by a psychology experimenter, to inflict increasing amounts of pain against an innocent man. Would anyone do it? If so, under what conditions? And what could be done to empower individuals to resist?

Watch the video Milgram Experiment atThe Milgram Experiment 1962 Full DocumentaryLinks to an external site.

After the film, discuss your reactions. Discuss what factors did and did not significantly affect the levels of obedience observed in this research. Discuss social impact theory and how it can explain the effects of the various manipulations used. Discuss if the obedience observed in Milgram's research was a function of the culture and time in which the research took place. Support your opinion. How does the power of the experimenter in Milgram's studies compare to people in many other situations, such as government officials, some teachers, parents, some peers, doctors, judges, the police, etc. Discuss the five types of power that are identified in the chapter reading. Which of these types of power was exerted by the experimenter? If you had been participants in this research would you have shown full obedience? Explain your answer. How is this likely to reflect the fundamental attribution error from Ch.4? Discuss the debriefing used by Milgram to try to alleviate the strain that participants were under and to make them feel less awful about what they had learned about themselves. Finally, discuss the irony of the fact that conformity can help individuals resist obedience. How this is consistent with social impact theory.